both ends, which are broken off, found in digging a drain at Crookston, Ollabery.

Portion of another similar rudely chipped implement of darkish stone.

Oval polished Knife of dark porphyritic stone, 54 inches by 3 inches; and portion of another, 34 inches by 2 inches; both found in clearing out the foundations of an ancient structure, supposed to be a Broch, at Gluss.

Portion of an oval Knife of dark stone, 37 inches by 2ğ inches, broken at the ends, found at Ollabery.

Pounder of granite, cheese-shaped, 23 inches by 3 inches, slightly hollowed on opposite faces, found at Ollabery.

Adze of brownish indurated clay slate, 7 inches in length by 24 inches across the cutting face, found on Roeness Hill.

Axe of greenstone, unsymmetrically shaped and much chipped, 61 inches in length by 23 inches in greatest breadth, found near Ollabery. Portion of a polished Axe of greenstone, 2 inches by 24 inches, also found near Ollabery.

Half of a polished circular Disc of micaceous schist with garnets, 4 inches by 25 inches, and about inch in thickness, found at Roeness Voe.

Rudely shaped Cup of Steatite, squarish, with rounded corners, 3 inches by 2 inches, the cavity about 1 inch in depth, and the sides about inch in thickness, the outside very roughly dressed, from Ollabery.

Oblong, irregularly shaped lump of steatite, 63 inches in length, 41 inches in breadth and about the same in thickness, perforated, and having six depressions on its irregular sides, as if cavities for moulds for small objects of unrecognisable forms, found beneath the floor of a cottage in Ollabery.

Oval, flattish, naturally shaped pebble of slaty stone, 47 inches in length by 33 inches in breadth and about an inch in thickness, perforated at the broader end so as to be hung with string between the horns of a bolting or butting cow, from Ollabery.

Two Charm Stones, small, naturally shaped pebbles of mottled serpentine, used in Ollabery to preserve or recover milk to cows supposed to be bewitched.

Figure of a Bird cut in steatite (the bill broken and renewed), 13 inches in height, the back and wings incised with lines running from head to tail, found 30 inches under the surface in a moss when casting peats at Ollabery.

Sinker of steatite, of somewhat conical shape, 5 inches in length by 27 inches in breadth and 1 inches in thickness, with a perforation near the apex and another at one side near the base, from Ollabery.

Small Jar of brown glazed earthenware, 24 inches in height, 13 inches diameter at the mouth, with two pierced ears under the brim, the sides bulging in the lower part and again contracting to a hase of 13 inches diameter, found in the bank of a burn at Roeness Voe.

Ancient Key of brass found in a peat-moss at Gosafiord, Hillswick.

(2) By JOHN MORTON, Whelphill, Abington.

Old Peat Firegrate of Iron, such as was used in shepherds' houses, from Whelphill, Abington.

(3) By the MASTER OF THE ROLLS.

Calendar of State Papers, Foreign, Reign of Elizabeth, 1581-82; Calendar of State Papers, Venice and North Italy, vol. xiii., 1613–15; Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VI., vol. ii., 1429-36; Acts of the Privy Council, 1601-4; Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII., vol. xx., Part 2, 1545; Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward III., 1350-54; Calendar of Close Rolls, Edward III., vol. x., 1354-60.

(4) By FRANCIS MARTIN NORMAN, Commander R.N., the Author. Berwick Historical Monuments Committee's Official Guide to the Fortifications of Berwick. 8vo. 1907.

(5) BY WILLIAM REID, F.S.A. Scot., the Author.

Guide-Book to the Old Steeple (Tower of St Mary's), Dundee. Second Edition. 1907.

(6) By R. N. HALL, the Author.

Guide and Souvenir, Great Zimbabwe Ruins, Mashonaland, South Africa.

8vo.

1907.

Notes on the Traditions of South African Races, especially of the Makulanga of Mashonaland. 8vo. 1907.

Prehistoric Gold Mines of Rhodesia. 8vo. 1907.

(7) By Professor J. C. EWART, M.D., the Author.

On Skulls of Horses from the Roman Fort at Newstead, Melrose. 4to. 1907.

(8) By F. C. INGLIS, F.S.A. Scot.

Ville de Paris: Commission de vieux Paris. Communications relatives à la découverte, et à l'identification des restes de l'Amiral Paul Jones. 4to. Paris, 1906.

(9) By CHARLES MENMUIR, M.A., F.S.A. Scot., the Author.

The Rising of the North: The Rebellion of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland in 1569. 8vo. 1907.

The following Communications were read :—

I.

"BANDS" OR COVENANTS IN SCOTLAND, WITH A LIST OF EXTANT COPIES OF THE SCOTTISH COVENANTS. BY THE REV. JAMES KING HEWISON, M. A., D.D., F.S. A. Scot.

An interesting chapter in Scottish history might be written regarding the origin and continuance of "bands" or bonds, leagues, mutual indentures, and covenants generally, having for their objects the protection of individuals, clans, or families, and the nation, or of certain rights, privileges, or possessions, personal or national, when these were. menaced. Assurances of this character, given and received, in some simple manner, or by a binding writ, may be considered a primitive custom. The examples of the covenants referred to and recorded in the Holy Scriptures were copied in the era of Christian civilisation, and invested similar agreements with a more binding force supposed to be the result of this religious association. An early and important compact, fraught with very happy results for Scotland, was that of The Brus and three gallant outlaws, as referred to in Balfour's Annals (i. 89), under the year 1306, thus:-"This zeire ther was a mutuall endenture made betuix Sr Gilbert Hay of Erole, Sr Neill Campbell of Lochaw, and Sr Alexander Setton, Knights, at the abbey of Londors, to defend King Robert and hes croune to the last of ther bloodes and fortunes; wpone the sealling of the said indenture, they solemly toke the Sacrament at St Maries altar, in the said abbey-churche."

For consolidating their personal power and influence as chieftains, heads of families, or heads of burghs, as well as to give them indisputable rights over the lives and possessions of their retainers and allies, the head-men, both in the Highlands and the Lowlands, exacted these bonds of manrent and indentures, so that their increased power as independent justices became a menace both to the Crown and to constitutional government. Consequently, the Estates of Scotland found it imperative, in 1424, by chapter 5 (Act, Parl. Scot., ii. 7), to make illegal

all bands, leagues, and risings of the commons in burghs under pain of confiscation of goods, and the offenders' lives being at the King's will. This enactment was extended in 1503 (c. 43; c. 33) to apply to landward districts; but afterwards, in 1584 (c. 4), and in 1585 (c. 6), this stringent enactment was modified so as not to apply to bands or conventions for the maintenance of those laws and liberties in church and state already declared to be lawful. This statute was again ratified on 16th January 1661 (Charles II., c. 12, Act. Parl. Scot., vii. 12). Thus the law stood till 24th June 1662, when the "Act (12, vii. 377-8) for Preservation of His Majesties Person, Authoritie and Government embodied certain clauses declaring all leagues and covenants to be "rebellious and treasonable," and "The National Covenant" and "The Solemn League and Covenant," in particular, to be "in themselffs unlawful Oaths." By Act 5 (1685) the covenants were again made treasonable (Act. Parl. Scot., viii. 461). While this latter Act may be inferred to be annulled by certain restrictive Acts passed at the Revolution, that of 1662 (c. 12) was finally repealed by [6 Edw. 7] Statute Law Revision (Scotland) Act 1906 [c. 38].

It is also worthy of note that the Privy Council Minutes record many bonds and agreements entered into between parties which were referred to the Privy Council for their imprimatur, so that the principals might contract mutually to be considered dishonest, perjurers, and impious men, should they break the terms of the deed sanctioned by the law. The offender thus constituted himself a criminal punishable by law.

In all likelihood the early British Protestants, as Wycliffites, Lollards, Gospellers, New Testamentars, Sacramentars, Heretics, long held themselves together by secret bonds of communion, of which only the faintest traces are preserved. In George Wishart's day, Sir George Douglas brother to the Earl of Angus, the Earl of Cassillis, the Earl of Glencairn, and John Erskine of Dun, agreed to protect the feeble cause of Protestantism. Bothwell, too, broke his vow to honour the Ormiston bond entered into for the protection of Wishart (Knox, i. 134-141).

The return of Knox to Scotland in 1555 made the framing of a bond,